We had a smooth crossing from Key Biscayne to Nassau (about a 27 hour run), which took us across the Gulf Stream, onto the Great Bahama Bank north of Bimini just before sunset, across the bank at night to the Northwest Channel at daybreak and into Nassau by noon. With the winds behind us, the trip was smooth and almost uneventful. Just before we left the banks, we met a commercial vessel that we couldn’t get to respond to our hails. With shallow water on either side of us, it wasn’t clear how we should pass. The ship made an unusual move of turning sharply to port to lie well to starboard in the somewhat deeper water. After that, it was a relief to enter the deeper Northwest Channel. Since a much larger cargo ship was coming up behind us, the wider deeper waters of the Northwest Channel let her give us a much wider berth. We didn’t want the experience of meeting her on the banks (unlike some friends of our who were traveling an hour or so behind us).

After receiving clearance to enter Nassau harbor, Marianna made a sudden turn into the anchorage near the harbor entrance. When we asked why, she said that she had suddenly lost her steerage and would be anchoring to fix the problem. Fred urged us to go on to the marina and assured us he would follow soon. We were glad when we heard him on the radio as he made his approach shortly after us.

Unlike our first trip to the Bahamas, the process of clearing Customs and Immigration couldn’t have been easier or more pleasant. Both officials came to our boat and were helpful in guiding us through filling out the forms. We were cleared in within a half hour of docking and ready to explore a bit beyond the marina.

Our first order of business was to find the Batelco office, so we could activate our Bahamian cell phone. We had purchased a phone with GSM technology and thought that the purchase of a SIM card and some minutes from Batelco would enable it to work. Sure enough, we found the office and the process worked exactly as we had been told. Things were falling into place.

We spent the next couple of days waiting out weather and getting positioned to go into the more remote Bahamas – doing wash, loading up on fuel and water, another grocery run and catching up on e-mail via a solid internet connection. In the evenings, we had some time to meet in person the boats traveling with us on the crossing: Bob and Chesley on Cygnet and Carter and Debbie on Abacus. We also did a little touring of the “other side” of Nassau, taking the public bus around the island (at school let out time) with all the locals and lots of school kids in their uniforms. It was an amazingly quiet ride for one full of so many kids, but the driver did have to work pretty hard to get his bus fare from all of them. We strolled down to nearby Potter’s Cay to see the farmer’s market and the groups of dominoes and checkers players. And, of course, we managed to find a TV around noon on the 20th to watch the inauguration.

From Nassau South to the Exumas

We finally got the conditions to leave the docks on Thursday (Jan. 22nd) and, after some jockeying of boats, moved Orion out toward the eastern exit of Nassau harbor. We decided to head to Shroud Cay, the northernmost island in the Exumas Land and Sea Park. By early afternoon, the conditions were right for sailing, so we pulled out all the fabric and sailed to a late afternoon arrival at Shroud Cay. The next day, we explored some of the creeks on the island, surrounded by mangrove trees. Since we were a little early on the tide cycle, we had to throw someone overboard to drag us (African Queen-style) through the shallower water where the engine was too deep. Usually that someone was Dave. At the end of the northernmost creek, we arrived at the beach on the Exuma Sound side. We explored a little and then came back to swim in the fast flowing waters where the creek met the sound. We could walk up the beach and then drift back to the dinghy, which was a lot of fun.

Our next stop was the island where the park headquarters was located on Warderick Wells. We took a mooring near Emerald Rock, just south of the park headquarters. Another several days here allowed us to explore the length of the island, with its many trails. We also took a morning to explore the harbor by kayak and then an afternoon swim on the beach. There is lots of snorkeling here as well, but it was a little chilly and we were running out of time. We were also pleased to meet up with some friends here. Namaste had arrived just before us. A couple of days later, Pride and Tradition, friends of Pat of Fred arrived. On our last day there, Pearland Bonnie Lass joined us. We could easily have spent more time here, but we needed to move on toward Georgetown, where Pat and Fred were meeting guests.

Our next stop was Little Farmer’s Cay, a tiny Bahamian village about 35 miles south of Warderick Wells. With only about 60 residents, we met a high percentage of them as we made the circuit through town, spending some time in conversation with the famous Terry Bain at Ocean Cabins, enjoying some cracked conch there as well. Everyone was busily preparing for a wedding which would take place in a couple of days. It was going to be the first wedding in the new church, and a rare event on the island. There was a lot of cooking going on, and guests were expected to arrive from Nassau and Georgetown to swell the population. We were invited to stay for the wedding, but unfortunately, we had to be in Georgetown by then.

Boats anchored in Georgetown

Georgetown - An Exciting Place

On Friday, January 30th, we headed south from Little Farmer’s Cay, out Galliot Cut, and into Exuma Sound for Georgetown. We had heard a lot about Georgetown from other cruisers. Lots of boats anchored there, a day camp for adults, some interesting dynamics between cruisers, lots of drama occurring when the winds piped up, a good place to provision. It was a little hard to know what to think, but we were bracing ourselves for a tricky anchoring situation. If you’ve read our logs, you know we want a lot of room. Would we be able to be comfortable? Since we were being joined by a couple dozen other boats with the same destination, we were wondering how crowded it would be.

We were pleasantly surprised at how easy we seemed to find a good spot. We anchored that night just off Volleyball Beach on Stocking Island, next to Marianna. Our conversations with Fred assured us the holding was good. Although there were 210 boats in the harbor, we had found a spot with plenty of room, and were getting set for the storms that were scheduled to arrive overnight. Dave was up most of the night, but we were holding fine all night. After finally crashing just after 6am, he was back up again at 6:30am to listen to Chris Parker’s weather.

And it was a good thing.

With the wind shift, a trawler that had been behind us was now in front of us – and getting closer. This didn’t look good. We simultaneously hailed them on the radio and sounded our horn. We saw movement on the boat. So Dave moved to the bow to assess the situation. The trawler was now right on top of us just off the bow. We needed to drop our rode and back away from her, but Dave and Fred (who had quickly joined him from Marianna) were struggling to do this. As the trawler attempted to power away from us, they began dragging us with them. Our chain was wrapped on her prop. When we finally got them to stop, the boats swerved back together, crunching our bow pulpit, as Orion drove into their swim platform. We were finally able to drop our rode and back away. As we left, we could see her now being held stern to the wind by our chain on her prop.

We moved across the harbor and anchored on our second anchor. Once the anchor set, we tried to assess the situation. It was very rough, but we were loathe to move at this point, so we decided to stick it out until the storm blew over and we knew the state of our ground tackle. With the help of other cruisers diving on the trawler, along with Fred and Dave, the trawler was finally shifted to hang on her own anchor. That freed up our anchor, but the chain would not come off her prop. We retrieved our anchor and the rope part of our rode, but had to leave our chain coiled on the trawler’s deck.

Over the next 3 days, we did little more than anchor and re-anchor. With our 2nd anchor deployed, we pulled out our storm anchor and made it ready to deploy in the event of (God forbid!) another emergency. Uncomfortable on our rope rode with another storm scheduled to arrive, we were given the loan of 90 feet of chain, which we then deployed with an extra long bridle to ride out the weather. We also watched and watched and watched to make sure we stayed put as the winds built and swung around. The good news was that we held on all 3 anchor sets. The bad news was that we would have to do it yet again once we got our chain back. Dave is getting really good at splicing. If he was rusty before, he isn’t now.

The trawler had herself hauled and our chain was removed intact, so we are hopeful that we will return to our full length of chain when we get it all put back in place. Throughout the incident and afterward, the community of cruisers was incredibly helpful. There were several people immediately at our aid, and continuing to do so through the coming days. We were once again in the debt of strangers, but that’s the way it is within the cruising community.

So, what about the rest of Georgetown? Well, we haven’t seen much, but we did manage to break away to Volleyball Beach for Beach Church on Sunday, which was wonderful. Dave also ran into town with Fred to retrieve the chain and got a brief look around the actual town of Georgetown, but our further explorations will have to wait.

Happy Birthday Dave

The day after we arrived in Georgetown was Dave’s birthday. For some reason, he didn’t really think the loss of anchor rode to be a good gift, but we made up for it with some delicious chocolates from Pat and Fred and some brownies. Chocolate cures lots of ills.